It wasn't in the original story as I recall, but Gandalf, Bilbo and the other brave characters in The Hobbit could have saved themselves time by taking the old Wooler to Alnwick railway line.

To the surprise and joy of all Northumberland, it appears in the posters for Peter Jackson's new film of J.R.R.Tolkien's precursor to the Lord of the Rings which opens in cinemas in December. Warner Brothers confirmed earlier this month that it will be the first in a trilogy, to be followed by The Desolation of Smaug and There and Back Again.

Jackson launched the poster for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in the United States in July before the Comic-Con convention in San Diego which is the world's largest gathering of devotees of comics and related art. It has taken a while, but Tolkien and Northumberland enthusiast Phil Murray has discovered that the backdrop of the hobbits' Shire, gentle but with a hint of far more challenging landscapes close at hand, is actually just up the road from his home in Rothbury.

Just missed the last train to Alnwick? Gandalf in Northumberland. Poster: Warner Brothers. guardian.co.uk

He tells the Northumberland Gazette that the image, which many may have assumed to be New Zealand where Jackson makes his Tolkien epics, is the lovely view from Corby Crag near Alnwick, whose castle stood in for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films. That link has brought extra visitors to the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland's home and gardens. Maybe the prospect of meeting Gandalf will now do the same for the surrounding, ravishing countryside.

Murray checked out the view looking west towards Edlingham castle, the Simonside hills and the viaduct of the old railway line which was surely flourishing in Bilbo's day. He tells the Gazette:

When I saw the poster, I immediately thought it looked similar to Edlingham Castle. I didn't think any more about it until I picked up this month's copy of Total Film which had an A3 poster of the image inside.

The level of detail in such a large version of the picture piqued my curiosity and I dived onto my computer to hunt for a picture I'd taken of the castle a couple of summers ago to see if my hunch was correct. I was stunned when it matched up perfectly. Even the field boundaries around the castle were the same in the poster as in real life.

The only things missing from The Hobbit poster are the houses dotted around.

That would be because hobbits live in underground houses, of course. But as Murray concludes:

it's funny to think that a little but of Northumberland will forever be Middle Earth.

It is also a place, which like the Shire, only the most restless inhabitants such as Bilbo Baggins would ever want to leave.